ActiveRain Tutorials: October 2009

As I have shared over the past few weeks, I have been extremely busy with Webinars for our new members teaching them how to write posts effectively for search engines & also to be appealing to consumers.  In the classes I share how to write posts to rank well in the search engines as well as making your posts appealing to a consumer who comes to read what you have written. 

During the webinars, one of the questions that normally comes up is Why do I need to be a Rainmaker?  While there are thousands of reasons why everyone should be a rainmaker, I decided to just share 6 of the most important ones.

• Google Dominance-  This is a no-brainer.  If you write it properly, it will rank well in Google.  It doesn't take months and years to start ranking well in Google.  If you don't believe me, read about one of the members who became a Rainmaker in less than 10 hours of sending two posts public was #1 & #2 on Google!  If you take the training that ActiveRain offers our Rainmakers and put it to use for you, the same results can be yours. 

• Blog views get a steroid injection.  If you are trying to figure out how to get more traffic to your blog, then a Rainmaker is a great option.  Did you know that our Rainmakers Average 500 views per post?  Here are some really interesting stats from a member who recently became a rainmaker.

                   Before                                                                         After

These stats were taken immediately after becoming a Rainmaker and you can see the results.  In an instant their blog traffic increased 4 times what it was on posts before being a Rainmaker.  This happens instantly because when you become a Rainmaker you get to have your posts show up in the search engines and also be read by consumers. 

• Increase of Income- This is probably my favorite reason for becoming a Rainmaker.  Once you become a rainmaker, you can really increase your revenue.  I don't need to prove that a Rainmaker Membership can increase your income, many of our members already have:

Over the past week or two, I had two referrals from my friends here at ActiveRain, AND one of the biggest closings we've had in months.  The closing came from a consumer who found my blog months ago and became a "fan". -Jason Crouch

While almost 60% of the members who joined Active Rain at the same time I did, have not used  this amazing marketing tool, I have garnered close to sixty (YES, sixty!!!) new clients through my blogging on AR.  I literally credit ActiveRain with saving my business during these trying times. -Mirela Monte

• Posts show up on Localism.  "The World's Most Complete Neighborpedia"  When you are writing content about your local area this gives you a great secondary avenue to share your information & increase your Internet exposure by double instantly.
  

• ActiveBlogs- Think of the endless marketing opportunities by having your blog show up on it's own domain name.  For example, which would you prefer seeing on a business card? http://activerain.com/blogs/jeremy or http://activejeremy.com?  Just how Localism gives you another avenue to share your content exponentially, your ActiveBlog does the same thing by offering a third place to syndicate your content to.
  

• Top Notch Training- The training & knowledge you can obtain on ActiveRain is alone enough reason to become a Rainmaker.  Between the webinars offered by ActiveRain and also the great information shared by members you can learn enough to revolutionize your business and take it to the next level.

So if you are not yet a Rainmaker, what have you been waiting for?  Get started today for only $5.00 for the first month. Or, if you would some training on how a rainmaker can increase your business, feel free to sign up for my Blogging Basics 101 Webinar where I will teach you personally how to get the most out of your membership. 

What are you waiting for?  Let's take your blogging career to the next level today!

As a staff member here at ActiveRain, I probably read anywhere from 100-200 posts a day.  Well, not really read the entire post, but I look through at least that many daily.  One of the things that baffles me daily are the titles of posts.  Have you ever seen some posts with titles like these?

• Just Listed 3BR/3BA home for $199,900
• Hurry, 8,000 Tax Credit Expires soon!
• Home Sales Increasing, Buy Today!
• Now is a Great Time to Buy!
• Great Custom All Brick Home
  

I could continue on but I think by now you get the idea.  If you notice, all of these types of titles are nothing more than a cheesy tag line used in advertising.  Unfortunately, your blog is not meant to be used as an advertisement.  The point to writing your blogs is to share with consumers information that they want to know. 

I have covered this topic in my webinars the past few weeks for our new members that have not yet become a Rainmaker.  Many people over look the importance behind the title of your post and do not place a lot of thought on it.  The title is one of the most powerful parts of your blog posts for search engine optimization or SEO.  If you are using generic sales ad statements in your title then you are missing the ability to use your keywords & help your post to rank well in the search engines.  Also, I am not exactly sure how many people search for things in Google by phrases like: Just listed 3BR/2BA home on Cul-de-sac, Now is a great time to buy.  Why?  Well see what happens when you type in Now is a great time to buy.  When I just did that, the results brought back 307 million results.  Or, if you search for the term Just listed 3BR/2BA $199,000.  This brings back homes for sale in California, Philadelphia, and who knows where else.

So, instead of these very general sales ad titles, how should you be titling your posts?  Well, it is actually rather simple.  You want to be more specific on the title of your post.  Also, be sure to include your longtail keywords.  For example, if I was going to write about a new listing, the title should be something more along these lines:

Home for Sale in The Farm at Carolina Forest in Myrtle Beach, SC~ 123 ABC St. Myrtle Beach, SC 29579

The example above is targeted on my Keywords.  My keyword is the community, The Farm at Carolina Fores in Myrtle Beach, SC.  Also, by including the address in the title, it allows consumers who drive by the property and write down the address of the property to find my blog post.  If neither of those pieces of information is included it makes it very difficult for consumers to find the blog post.

In the example Home Sales Increasing, Buy Today, the title should be changed to something resembling this:

Sold Homes in The Gates Austin, TX increases by 12%. An Austin Texas Real Estate Market Report

This title once again Targets on the longtail keyword which is Sold Homes in The Gates Austin, TX.  Also, we have used other keywords that someone might use when doing a real estate search by saying Austin Texas Real Estate Market Report.  

These are just two basic examples of how to attract more readers to your posts just by making some simple changes to the title of your posts.  Use this tip and watch how your posts will begin to receive more traffic and better results in the search Engines.

As I have mentioned over the last week or so that I have recently started teaching some webinars for our non Rainmakers.  In these webinars I am teaching them how to write effective blog posts to rank well in Google as well as be appealing for consumers.  Yesterday, I taught a class that included one of our new members, Leilani Souza.

Leilani took some of the tips I shared during our webinar and has implemented them beautifully!  One of the things I always try to do is keep an eye out on my students to see how I can help them and how their posts rank.  Well, last night, only 10 hours after our class was over, Leilani sent a few blog posts public that have already claimed the #1 & #2 spots on Google!  Google has already indexed her blog and placed her at the top of the search engine where she belongs.  See below:

I am so proud of my student taking the basics to blogging and putting them into action.  She can already see the results and things will only get better from here!  On the other hand, I am guessing today that the agents that have dominated those positions are quite upset to see them lose rankings so quickly.  This is a great example of the power of being a rainmaker and how it can increase your online presence dramatically.

If you have been sitting on the fence on whether or not becoming a Rainmaker is right for you, sign up for my webinar and start seeing results like Leilani's Blog.  I guarantee it will be the best $5.00 you ever spend!

To make things easier, I have included the form below to sign up

As I mentioned last Friday, ActiveRain Announced Blogging Basics 101 Webinars for our new members.  The response has been tremendous so far!  Tonight at 6PM I held our first webinar and the responses from our members who attended were fantastic.  Here are just two of them.  Also, after you read their comments about the webinar, please take a minute to visit our new Rainmakers and give them some encouragement as they begin their blogging careers. 

"From my first phone call with you this afternoon, I knew the Webinar would be a success for me! You were approachable, kind, patient – all things I needed to overcome my fear of starting to blog. I think I’m up to the challenge – keep an eye on me!!"- Debbe Perry Carolina Property GMAC Real Estate

Thanks so much, Jeremy for tonight's webinar on Blogging Basics.  You nailed the subject perfectly for the novice!  I've heard "the fuss" about blogging for over a year now, and could only ask myself what on earth I'd find to say everyday, and why the world at large would want to listen.  Now I get it.  Thank you.  It opens up a whole new world of possibility!- Barbara Beers Re/Max United

Thanks to everyone that attended today and remember, if you are a new member here at ActiveRain that has not already upgraded to a Rainmaker account, feel free to click here and fill out the form at the bottom. Spaces are limited and are on a first come first serve basis.

Also, if you are a broker of your own company and would like to have a webinar to give your agents a jump start to their blogging career, contact me directly for more information.

Top FREE Online Technology Tools and Services for Your Business - 2009

Last year around this time, I created a Blog post with links to the "Top 200+ FREE Sites and Tools" for your Business.  Hard to believe that was a year ago.  This year is focused on some sites and tools I actually use more frequently, and think you might too.  There are so many great sites that offer some fantastic services, it's a challenge to keep up with all of them, and try to tell you which ones are the best. You could spend more time learning and playing on the computer than actually getting your work done. (so be careful if you check out my top 200 from last year..)

With that in mind, I tried to focus these "Top Sites" on things you can actually use and apply to your business.  For every site and service I mention here, there are probably 4 or 5 others that offer the same type of tools or service, and that's not to say they aren't fantastic, these are just my selected choices to share.  The slide-show below (using slideshare.net) has the name of the site, a quick overview of each one, then a link to their site using their logo. Some of these you will have heard of, and might even be using already.

You can download a copy of this from Box.net, a great site to store and share files with others.  If you've come across some great sites, on-line tools, or FREE services yourself this year, and you'd like to share them here, feel free to do so.  On many occasions, I have found some of the best stuff by just reading Blog comments on others posts.

In these tighter economic times, I hope some of these sites and tools will help save you some money, time, and contribute to improving your Blogs, Websites, and Service to your clients. Enjoy! :-)

Last week I wrote about the exciting new one on one training program that ActiveRain is offering for those who want to become a Rainmaker.  Well the response has been so great that I have been very busy with those sessions.  But, many have asked if I can do this as a live webinar so they can see things live as I point them out.

With that being said, I am proud to announce that I will now be offering Live Webinars each week for those that are new to blogging and have not yet become a Rainmaker.  These webinars will be on Monday & Wednesday every week. In the beginning there will be 3 sessions per week. Monday will host 2 webinars, one at 1PM EST and another at 6PM EST.  Wednesday's session will be at 1PM EST.  Each webinar is limited to only 25 seats, so the make sure you register immediately.  The sessions will last aprroximately 60-90 minutes in length.  Unfortunately, if you are already a Rainmaker, this class isn't for you.  But, there is a great training session that Steven is offering for those that are currently a Rainmaker.  Check out his full schedule here.

What will be covered in the Webinar?

How to Optimize Your ActiveRain Profile.
How to Insert Photos into your Blog
How to Insert Hyperlinks.
Setting up Your Outside Blog.
How to write effective blog posts for consumers & search engines.
How to use your blog to connect with your community.
Topics to write about on your blog.
Question & Answer

How Much?!? How Much?!?

This is the greatest part, these webinars are only going to be $5.00 per person! But wait, theres more!  The $5.00 that you spend to join these webinars is not going to go to waste.  Not only will you receive a top notch training session on how to write blogs effectively to show up in the top of search engines which is worth much more than $5.00 in itself, you will also be given one full month to try out our Rainmaker Membership.  That includes your posts being indexed by search engines, the ability to send those posts to Localism and also posted to your personal Outside Blog.  As a final bonus, you will receive 1,000 bonus points for attending the webinar.

Why do I want to be a Rainmaker?

There are plenty of reasons why everyone should want to be a Rainmaker.  I am going to share just a few.  First, becoming a Rainmaker means that your posts will have the ability to harness the power of our 160,000+ members and the massive amount of search engine dominance that ActiveRain possesses.   Over 75% of ActiveRain's 2 million visitors per month come directly from the search engines.   Also, Rainmaker accounts consistently outrank members personal websites in searches.  Our Rainmakers posts average 500 views per post.  Others are receiving much more traffic (25,000 views!).

How do I sign up?

Well signing up is rather simple.  Simply fill out the form below with your contact information and I will send you an email confirming your session and also how to register.

If you were wondering why you would want to be a Rainmaker, here are 6 reasons why everyone should be a Rainmaker. Also, here are some awesome results from a member who took my webinar: Take Rainmaker Webinar today, the #1 spot on Google 10 hours Later!